Sunday 30 June 2013

Inorganic chemistry, key to getting a TOP rank in IIT-JEE...

Surprised ?? Yes this indeed is the bitter truth.. Inorganic chemistry is that branch of chemistry which most toppers study very seriously as compared to others and this is where they defeat others.

Well I am writing on inorganic chemistry first, because most students think that "Ahhh, JEE tests only concepts and logic, there will be hardly any question from inorganic part" . Moreover, some think that "inorganic is wrote learning. I will do it in the end". But the truth is that besides testing your thinking ability, JEE also tests your memorizing capacity through the memory based questions asked under inorganic chemistry and some part of organic chemistry(Practical organic chemistry).

I can give you numerous examples of students who didn't give importance to inorganic chemistry, and got a rank which was higher(higher means higher in magnitude) than what they deserved. One such example is my friend, Aniket Gupta (AIR-641, IIT-JEE 2013) who neglected chemistry(mostly inorganic chemistry). He was superb at Maths and Physics and he could have easily got a rank under 500 had he studied inorganic chemistry seriously.

For inorganic chemistry, keep the following 3 points in mind:
1.) NCERT is the GodBook. Learn "each and every" word of NCERT for inorganic chemistry. In past few years, IIT's have picked up questions directly from NCERT. Once, an 8 marks matrix match was also picked up directly from NCERT.
2.) Don't leave the inorganic chemistry for the last 2 months. Start preparing for it from the first day itself and seriously "learn" inorganic chemistry for 2 whole years.
3.) Do regular revision. I can bet you that if you don't revise it for about 15 days, then you are sure to forget a large part of it.

Besides NCERT, if you have some time left in your hand, then you can (infact you must) go for JD Lee. It's one of the best books for inorganic chemistry and helps you do develop concepts of inorganic chemistry.
WARNING: Refer to IIT-JEE syllabus if you are deciding to pick up JD Lee. It contains a lot of stuff that is of no use for IIT-JEE.

Download NCERT from HERE

And the fight continues

At FIITJEE, regular all India tests were organized. I was regularly analyzing my performance in each test. It was during these tests that I learnt a very good habit - "always note down the mistakes that you committed in a particular test and make sure that you don't repeat it in the next test." This is a very important task and is basically the ONLY thing that distinguishes toppers from others.
I used to solve FIITJEE packages and simultaneously, past years JEE problems.
The following are the books that I referred besides the material provided by FIITJEE:

PHYSICS

  1. Mechanics: HC Verma and IE Irodov (don't get scared by this book, it's not that difficult as people exaggerate)
  2. Other parts of physics: HC Verma(Please don't neglect the Objective 1 and 2 problems of HCV. They are the best collection of questions for more than one correct type questions). Also do read NCERT Physics at least once after completing the syllabus. You will definitely find new things that you have never heard of.


CHEMISTRY

  • Physical Chemistry: NCERT and OP Tondon (sometimes) and RC Mukherjee for questions
  • Organic Chemistry: NCERT and LG Wade (Pearson Education - Best book for organic chemistry)
  • Inorganic Chemistry: NCERT(very very important. Learn each and every alphabet of NCERT for this) and JD LEE(only for reference, don't pick up this one if you don't have spare time).


MATHS

  • Algebra: Tata McGraw Hill (TMH)
  • Calculus: Arihant (for both, differential and integral calculus)
  • Co-ordinate geometry: Arihant again
  • Trigonometry: no specific book, although RD Sharma is sufficient for this or ML Agarwal (ICSE Board maths book)

The above is the set of books that I used. Maybe some of them don't suit you. So it's better to choose your books wisely.
Another piece of advice - DON'T fill your cupboard with a lot of books. In the end you will get confused. Read the theory from a single Standard textbook and move on to solving questions from multiple books

Saturday 29 June 2013

And the journey begins

As I have already mentioned, I didn't attend the school (best strategy for JEE preparation). This left me with a huge amount of time. We had 3 coaching classes a week. I used to wake up in the morning at around 6.45 AM. At around 7.30, I was ready to study. My parents ensured that this schedule was followed strictly. My peak study time (the time when you get maximum output for a given input) was from 7.30 AM to 10.30 AM and i tried to avoid any kind of distraction during this interval. This time is very crucial for your preparation and varies from student to student. Some students are comfortable at night but I avoided night studying. I hardly remember any day where I can imagine myself studying after 8 PM.

During your JEE preparation, you will have to face many barriers and to be successful, you need to tackle them wisely. Many people start the preparation with a huge energy but soon get distracted - malls, friends, family, cousins, relatives, girlfriends, boyfriends, cigarette, drinking and a bunch of other stupid things. Seriously, I would say that "Shut your brain for everything else and bang your head on the books!!!"

Everything will be yours if you get a decent rank in JEE and I promise you that your relatives would be the first one to "taunt" you or better "leave" you if you fail..!!

Friday 28 June 2013

Beginning of my JEE Preparation

In class 10th, I was taken to IIT-Kanpur by my school. That was simply an "amazing" place to be at -"huge campus", "one of the largest libraries of India", "sophisticated laboratories" and everything else you can imagine about a reputed engineering college. It was this day that I decided that I have to get into the IITs. I got a target for me. Soon after my board exams got over, I started to look for a good training institute for IIT-JEE 2013 preparation - tough task indeed.

Most of the coaching institutes claim that - "we are the best, we produce the best results." So, it was very difficult to choose the right institute. But, in the end, I decided to join FIITJEE Kanpur - a great decision indeed.

I missed the FTRE - "FIITJEE Talent Reward Exam", but I appeared for FIITJEE's admission test(in April 2011) and got 65% tuition fee waiver. 
The classes began on 29th April, 2011. We had about 35 students in our class. It was at this moment that I took a life changing decision for me - "I Left my school (ICSE Board) and joined a CBSE Board dummy school". In dummy schools, attendance is not at all mandatory. So I got sufficient time for my JEE preparation and I prepared for the exam of my life, whole heartedly.
I believe that joining a coaching institute gives a direction to one's preparation. Self study is also a good option but for doubt clearance and a healthy competition, a coaching institute is a good choice.
And now, the long journey began.

My first post


Hello reader, this blog was created soon after the JEE (Advanced)-2013 results were declared. I had nothing to do and I decided that blogging would be a good idea. It would not only help me to get my time passed but also my English would be improved (I am pretty weak at that).


Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Aman Goel, a student who cleared JEE (Advanced)-2013 (formerly referred to as IIT-JEE) with an All India Rank of 33. I have decided to join Computer Science and Engineering, at IIT-Bombay, my dream destination. I belong to Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. In this blog, I would be describing my IIT-JEE preparation.
The two years of JEE preparation are crucial and decide your future. Cracking JEE is the key to getting admission into the premier engineering colleges of India- the IIT's. There are lakhs of students striving hard to crack the toughest engineering exam and the change in pattern of exam this year has made it even more difficult.